Page 25 of The Hunt
“Do you understand? Stop fighting and let me take care of you.”
Scared as fuck, I nodded in agreement. Whatever it took to stay alive.
With the tip of his blade, he tucked some hair behind my ear. “Don’t make me hurt you, Daphne. I don’t want to. But you have to listen to me. You have to or else I’ll be forced to keep you in line. And I don’t want to do that.”
“Please,” I said before I could stop myself. “Don’t do this. I don’t want to be with you.”
His eyes darkened. “You don’t mean that. You just don’t understand yet. But you will.”
CHAPTER 17
DAPHNE
Before Mark could say another word, someone wrapped their arm around his neck and pulled him backward. My eyes widened, and I tried desperately to escape the binds he had placed around my wrists.
“What the fuck!” Mark shouted, throwing the knife back and sliding it into the guy’s belly to get away.
“You, fucker!” Apollo growled, grasping his stomach and sizing him up. Blood pooled between his fingers, yet he didn’t move from his spot blocking the stairs. He spit blood at Mark’s feet. “Get away from her.”
Mark lunged at Apollo with his knife, but Apollo dodged it easily, his movements sharp and precise. What is he doing here?! Why… How… If he stays much longer, then Mark is going to kill him!
“You think you can just take her?!” Apollo snarled, tackling Mark.
“She’s mine,” Mark said on his back, swinging the knife around wildly.
“She’s mine!” Apollo roared, getting cut with the knife again but not reacting.
I had never seen him like this before. I had never seen anyone like this before.
Not over me.
His eyes were wild, his jaw clenched, and his whole body trembling uncontrollably. He took another cut to the thigh and slammed his fist down into Mark’s face. Over and over and over, he took the cuts and dished out the punches, each one harder than the last.
“Apollo!” I cried, blood seeping everywhere. “Apollo! You’re bleeding. He’s going to–”
“She’s mine!” he shouted again, voice so raw with emotion. “Mine!”
Mark slashed at him again, but Apollo caught his wrist and twisted it until the knife fell to the ground. Except Apollo didn’t grab it like he should’ve. No, he continued raining punches down onto Mark’s face.
“You don’t get to look at her. You don’t get to fantasize about her. You don’t even get to breathe the same fucking air as her.” His voice shook with rage. Each punch was fueled by a fury that didn’t have an end. “She’s mine!”
Blood pooled underneath Mark, his craziness turning into pleas for Apollo to stop.
One after another after another, Mark’s body began to go limp until suddenly he stopped moving altogether. But Apollo didn’t stop even then. No, he dug his thumbs into Mark’s eyes until he got a good hold on his head, then he bashed it over and over into the concrete.
I stared in horror at the scene unfolding in front of me. He had… saved me.
Not only that, but… but I think Mark was… dead.
“Apollo!” I cried. “Apollo, please, get me out of here.”
Apollo looked up from his blind rage, his expression softening. Then he released his grip on Mark’s face and stood up, his hands covered in blood. He closed the distance between us and undid the ropes around my wrists, then ankles.
Then he lifted me and headed toward the stairs. He walked up in complete silence, except his body was still trembling in anger. He stared straight ahead. “Daphne, tell me that you’re okay. Please. Please, tell me that you’re okay.”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
Did he just… kill someone for me? For me?! The girl he saw as a challenge?
